Extreme Roles

A detailed Summary of Extreme Roles

In every country, city, town and neighborhood in the world, there are stereotypes. We all live in a classified area where you can be regarded as rich, poor or middle class. Within those three types there becomes sub-categories, where ethnicity , gender and sexuality also become a part of the environment. The list goes on and on. In David H. Hwang's M. Butterfly, the roles of men and women in the Eastern and Western society are extremely limited in that men and women are both expected to act there part.

Being a women in Eastern society, means basically, to do whatever possible to please your man. Song, although we come to find is actually a man, played the part of the perfect women. " Gallimard: I have a vision. Of, the Orient. That, deep within its almond eyes, there are still women. Women willing to sacrifice themselves for the love of a man. Even a man whose love is completely without worth."(Act three, scene three, pg.92). Song knew from experience that men of the Western world loved submissive women who would do anything to please the man they were with. Femininity is displayed as weak and passive. In order to find a man, a women had to do anything, even accept the fact that there husband

s would find a mistress on the side. It was socially acceptable to be intentionally blind to what your husband was doing. The same also seemed to take place in the Western world as well, although not at such extreme cases.. Helga assumed that Gallimard took up a mistress while living in the Orient.

Gallimard fell in love with a man. He forced himself for twenty something years to believe that Song was a woman. He knew deep down inside what was really going on, but never let himself admit it. This was because he thought that Song was such a "perfect woman", and also because the idea of homosexuality was simply unacceptable. If Gallimard was gay, which is a matter of opinion, the Eastern and Western society at that time would of completely shamed him and that lifestyle. "Chin: Don't forget: there is no homosexuality in China!"(Act two, Scene five, pg. 48) Being homosexual basically meant not existing in that country at that time. Even during the trial, it seemed incomprehensible that any man would fall in love with another man. Gallimard even refused to believe that he fell in love with a man. "Gallimard: I'm a man who loved a woman created by a man. Everything else-simple falls short."(Act Three, Scene three pg. 90). It is hard not to say that homosexuality didn't take place, because in a sense it did, but it simply went unnoticed.

Masculinity in this novel seems to be, the more women you have in your lifetime, the more you

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Approximate Word count = 973
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Politics